Star Ledger Selling Its Newark Headquarters

The state’s largest newspaper is putting its Newark headquarters on the market as a cost-saving measure, various outlets reported Thursday.

Publisher Rich Vezza said the paper will lease office space but does not know where, Philly.com reported.

The paper’s offices, which take up most of a few city city blocks along Court Street near Washington, were built nearly 50 years ago.

Vezza said the decision to sell the building is unrelated to ongoing negotiations between the Ledger and its production unions, which are being asked for concessions. Vezza has said the paper will be forced to close by the end of the year if those concessions are not made.

Union official Ed Shown supports the move, Philly.com reported.

The Star Ledger, like the newspaper industry as a whole, has struggled financially for several years, losing millions in print ad revenue to the Internet. The 2008 recession also took a toll on the Ledger, which has lost tens of millions in the past year, Vezza has said.

Partly in response, newspapers across the country have sold off their buildings and moved into smaller, less costly offices. In 2008, The Record of Bergen County said it was moving out of its headquarters in downtown Hackensack .